IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-65468-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of a transient neonatal visual deprivation on the development of the ventral occipito-temporal cortex in humans

Author

Listed:
  • Stefania Mattioni

    (UGent
    UCLouvain)

  • Mohamed Rezk

    (UCLouvain)

  • Xiaoqing Gao

    (Zhejiang University)

  • Junghyun Nam

    (University of Toronto)

  • Zhong-Xu Liu

    (University of Michigan-Dearborn)

  • Remi Gau

    (UCLouvain)

  • Valérie Goffaux

    (UCLouvain)

  • Andrea I. Costantino

    (KU Leuven)

  • Hans Beeck

    (KU Leuven)

  • Terri Lewis

    (McMaster University)

  • Daphne Maurer

    (McMaster University)

  • Olivier Collignon

    (UCLouvain
    The Sense Innovation and Research Center)

Abstract

How does sensory experience shape the development of the visual brain? To answer this eluding question, we examine brain responses to visual categories in a rare group of cataract-reversal individuals who experienced a short transient period of early blindness. Encoding of low-level visual properties is impaired in the early visual cortex (EVC) of cataract-reversal participants, whereas categorical responses in downstream ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOTC) are preserved. In controls, degrading visual input to mimic the visual deficits of cataracts produces cascading disruptions extending from EVC to VOTC, unlike in the cataract group. A deep neural network trained on altered visual input reproduces this dissociation, supporting the brain findings. These results demonstrate that while EVC is permanently affected by early deprivation, categorical coding in VOTC shows resilience, highlighting different sensitive periods for specific brain regions and computations.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefania Mattioni & Mohamed Rezk & Xiaoqing Gao & Junghyun Nam & Zhong-Xu Liu & Remi Gau & Valérie Goffaux & Andrea I. Costantino & Hans Beeck & Terri Lewis & Daphne Maurer & Olivier Collignon, 2025. "Impact of a transient neonatal visual deprivation on the development of the ventral occipito-temporal cortex in humans," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-17, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-65468-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-65468-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65468-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-65468-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Le Grand & Catherine J. Mondloch & Daphne Maurer & Henry P. Brent, 2001. "Early visual experience and face processing," Nature, Nature, vol. 410(6831), pages 890-890, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marisa Nordt & Jesse Gomez & Vaidehi S. Natu & Alex A. Rezai & Dawn Finzi & Holly Kular & Kalanit Grill-Spector, 2023. "Longitudinal development of category representations in ventral temporal cortex predicts word and face recognition," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, December.
    2. Sandra Utz & Claus-Christian Carbon, 2016. "Is the Thatcher Illusion Modulated by Face Familiarity? Evidence from an Eye Tracking Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-18, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-65468-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.